23.07.2005

iVideo [Update]

Robert X. Cringely unterhält uns nun schon seit mehreren Wochen mit teils mehr, teils weniger treffsicheren Beobachtungen sowie Spekulationen über die Beweggründe hinter Apples Griff zu Intel und zu einem baldigen iTunes der käuflichen bewegten Bilder. In seiner dieswöchigen Kolumne wird schließlich Namensnennung betrieben: "So where Intel had been Microsoft's lap dog on so many previous technical initiatives, I'm sure we'll see some divergence, like Intel's partnering in the new Apple movie download service, which someone told me this week will be called iVideo. If iVideo is the correct name, it implies that the new application will become part of Apple's iLife suite along with iMove, iTunes and other applications. This makes good sense even for Intel. Why? Because at this point it is more important to Intel for iVideo to be a success than it is for iVideo to use lots of Intel chips." Und während die Bezeichnung iVideo zahlreiche Fragezeichen aufwirft ('iVideo' wird von der Cupertino-nah ansässigen Be Here Corporation seit Jahren gehalten), sollte man weiterhin den WSJ-Artikel der letzten Woche und den gerade wieder aufgefrischten Handelsmarkeneintrag zum 'iTunes Music Store' im Hinterkopf behalten, der folgenden Zweck umfasst: "[...] to program audio, video, text and other multimedia content, including music, concerts, videos, radio, television, news, sports, games, cultural events, and entertainment-related programs."Update: Jeremy Horwitz widmet sich in einem langen iLounge-Editorial (seit wann heißt man dort denn nicht mehr iPodlounge?) der möglichen Hard- und Software-seitige Gestalt von iVideo: "Is an Apple Expo unveiling likely? iLounge’s Larry Angell suggests not, noting that the company has not unveiled significant full-sized iPods at trade shows: at best, Apple held special, invitation-only “music” events, but sometimes did so without any event at all. However, Apple has introduced several other iPods at trade shows: the iterative second-generation at 2002’s Apple Expo in Tokyo, the iPod mini at Macworld in 2004, and the iPod shuffle at Macworld in 2005. The latter two devices were arguably the most mainstream products developed by the company, and best suited to the huge surge of mainstream media attention Apple enjoys at trade shows."

Samstags-MacOrama für den 23. Juli 2005

"Mac OS X 10.4.3, which its believed to be on target for a release by mid-Sept., began making the rounds in Silicon Valley earlier this week. Sources were mum on details, saying the first pre-releases builds of the software are slated to be released to thousands of Apple developers and business partners for testing in a matter of days", so AI. Ein Security Update soll sich ebenfalls in Arbeit befinden, obwohl momentan keine kritischen Lücken öffentlich bekannt seien.
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Gary Allen fasst bei AI die zu erwartende Entwicklung der Apple Retail Stores zusammen, praktisch nichts Neues aber ein guter Überblick: "The next three months appear to be a critical period for the Retail segment, as they balance expansion, increased popularity of Apple's products, and the need to keep providing top-notch sales and service. As long as none of these elements swing out of range, you can expect to see many more back-lit Apple logos at shopping malls both in the U.S. and around the world."
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Lange keinen 'Ich hasse den iPod und alles was mit ihm kommt'-Artikel mehr gehabt, nett dass The Scotsman pünktlich zum Wochenende in die Bresche springt: "The reality is that it's just given desperate magazine editors another list to fill those endless column-inches: "Celebrity iPod", "My 25 most listened-to tracks", "Desert Island iPod", each as meaningless as the last, because you can bet not one of these people will confess they're really listening to the Crazy Frog song."
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Windows Vista - formerly Windows code name "Longhorn": "It enables a new level of confidence in your PC and in your ability to get the most out of it." Realsatire aka bad marketing. Technoskop liefert die passende Verschwörungstheorie und Chris Jablonski schreibt in einem ZDNet Blog: "A look at the average number of page views per title reveals that Microsoft gets about half as many page views per title as compared to Google and Apple, a strong indication of where reader interest actually resides.[...] Microsoft makes waves too, and any announcement about Longhorn (now Vista) usually attracts readers in droves. The sentiment is different however, and appears to be adversely effecting interest."
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Ein Macromedia Entwickler erklärt den Geschwindigkeitszuwachs des Flash Player 8 auf dem Mac: "So, in essence it means that the Flash Player will use OpenGL on OS X 10.2 or newer to display its content if the machine meets the requirements. This is the direct result of working with some Apple engineers which were really helpful in getting us to be confident with these changes. In addition almost every core rendering routine now has an AltiVec implementation, you should see that when profiling using Shark. We spend a lot of time on this in this release."

"The report found that in businesses with 250 employees or more, 17 percent of the employees were running Mac OS X on their desktop computer at work. In Businesses that had 10,000 or more employees, 21 percent of employees used Mac OS X on their desktop work computer." Zahlen von Jupiter Research, zitiert bei MacCentral.
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"The majority of the fixes in Safari 2.0 Update 1 for Mac OS X 10.4.x and Safari 1.3 Update 6 for Mac OS X 10.3.9 are identical, correcting a number of small bugs that could crash the browser and other small anomalies", verkündet Think Secret.
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NetNewsWire 2.0.1: "The main point of this release is to support Atom 1.0 feeds—but it also fixes a couple crashing bugs and updates the Sites Drawer." (Change Notes)

"Dora", is the world's first fully autonomous vehicle driven by Mac OS X. The entire development and race management efforts at Team Banzai is being done using Apple Mac OS X technology."
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Wired berichtet über eine Podiumsdiskussion zur Zukunft der digitalen Musik, auf der unter anderem 'Professor iPod' zugegen war: "But Bull warned against the jukebox model, which he sees as confounding choice and depersonalizing musical taste. "The iPod shuffle is successful because people can't handle the amount of choice on larger-capacity models," he said. Most iPod users take advantage of just 2 percent of their collections, he claimed. "If you can access everything, you can't choose anything," he said. "The subscription model seems to fly in the face of the personal nature of music collections," he added. "I think that's wrong, it's not how people work."
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Piper Jaffray said, "We believe that the iPod is gaining further traction through the beginning of the September quarter, as evidenced by the number of iPods included on the Amazon.com Top Seller List. In addition, we believe the iPod does not have any supply constraints given that all products ship on the same business day according to Apple's Web site."
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"According to industry sources, RadioShack, the nation's No. 1 electronics specialty retailer, has agreed to carry Apple's full mix of iPod digital music players at several thousands locations beginning the fourth calendar quarter of the year." AI.
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"On the heels of a succesful clearance of previous generation iPods through online discounter Overstock.com, Apple is reportedly looking to dump existing inventory of Mac minis and previous generation G5 systems through similar outlets.[...] Some of the Mac systems Apple is looking to discount include "finished goods" stock of Mac minis, first generation iMac G5s and Power Mac G5 desktops. Sources said a percentage of the G5-based systems are believed to be refurbrished items, while the stock of Mac minis are new retail models", so AI. Die Versandzeit des Mac mini erhöhte sich im US Store erneut auf 5-7 Tage.
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20.07.2005

MacOrama für den 20. Juli 2005

Ein Buch über manische Unternehmer: "They have an offbeat idea, which they believe with messianic fervor will change everything," he says. "And their evangelical zeal gets other people on board." Apple Computer co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs thinks his company's product will change our lives, and is a good example of this type of visionary.[...] To Gartner, describing someone's behavior as manic was more than an easy label—it described a specific type of behavior. Maniacs have grandiose visions and high energy, and are risk-taking and impulsive. A hypomanic shares some of the same characteristics of a manic depressive, but he doesn't suffer from a psychiatric disorder", so zu lesen bei Fortune.
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"In fact, TechnoMetrica reports that it found surprising divergence in consumer preferences when it comes to the Walkman Phone and the iPod. According to Kambanis, "at this stage in the game, the iPod generation -- and that term encompasses more than age -- appears to be shunning the Walkman Phone, even at the conceptual stage." Da die Ergebnisse so nett plausibel erscheinen, darf über den vermutlich methodischen Müll der "Studie" ruhig hinweggesehen werden.
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"The Audi-Oh will then vibrate to music coming from your stereo or directly from your iPod, other MP3 player or portable music device while you listen through your headphones. You can even wear the Audi-Oh discreetly under your clothes while you "dance with yourself" at your favorite dance music club."
'Kim' wird übrigens (glücklicherweise) ebenso wenig mitgeliefert wie der iPod. Und vielleicht hätte ihr mal jemand sagen sollen, wie das genau funktioniert mit dem Audi-Oh. (via The Register)
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19.07.2005

MacOrama für den 19. Juli 2005 [Update]

"Apple Computer Inc., too, increased its share of the U.S. PC market during the second quarter, rising to 4.5 percent from 3.7 percent a year ago, as global unit shipments rose more than 37 percent, IDC said. IDC said that the Mac mini as well as its digital music business and the iPod digital music player have "clearly benefited the company's PC business." Weitere Zahlen bei Reuters. Gartner, zitiert bei TheStreet.com, kommt zu folgendem Ergebnis: "In the U.S., Apple posted the highest growth rate among its peers as shipments grew 31%, helping it advance to No. 4 domestically from the No. 5 slot."Update: Apples weltweiter Marktanteil dürfte nach den IDC Zahlen bei rund 2,5% liegen. Piper Jaffray sieht weitere Marktanteilszuwächse in den kommenden Quartalen: "Results over the last three quarters have illustrated the existence of the 'halo' effect, and we expect to see continued evidence of iPod-to-Mac carryover in the September quarter due to back-to-school".
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Ein über USB gemountetes SE K750i bringt beim Abstöpseln OS X offenbar zum Abstürzen, entsprechend liefert Daniel Becker (der bereits mit iScroll für viel Freude sorgte) mit dem K750iGrabber eine problembefreite Kernel Extension: "After some more investigation, it turned out that the K750i not only provides a card reader interface over USB, but also provides several interfaces for modem and device configuration functionality. As Bluetooth is plenty fast for the former, and there are no Mac device drivers for the latter, I built a simple driver that seizes all those unused USB interfaces and disables them." Donationware.
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Das W800 wurde zeitgleich mit dem K750i vorgestellt, soll aber erst im Herbst auf den europäischen Markt kommen. Die Unterschiede zum K750i sind dabei marginal, Mobile-review hat sich diese näher angesehen: "Considering the fact buying the K750 and a 512MB card will be cheaper than the W800, and then buying the last model seems senseless. Excluding the case when you like the W800's design more than the K750's one. So, the described model is mainly targeted at people little acquainted with Sony Ericsson's products but listening to the music often and having a notion of the Walkman brand."
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